The Minor League Report

It's been a busy week for me outside of Icethetics. So I have a bunch of minor league jersey news to get through this afternoon.

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Checkers and Canes join forcesOn Wednesday, it was officially announced that the AHL's Albany River Rats will be moving to North Carolina this fall, at the urging of their NHL affiliate, Carolina Hurricanes.

The club has been sold to Michael Kahn, owner of the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers. The River Rats will begin play in 2010-11 in Charlotte under the Checkers name, competing in the American Hockey League.

It's not clear what will happen to the ECHL franchise and its players. Capital District Sports CEO Garen Szablewski is efforting a team back to Albany for 2010 — hoping for an AHL franchise, using the River Rats name. I don't know the odds of that happening but it does appear there will be a couple dozen ECHLers without a team to play for when all this goes through.

Why is this Icethetics news? It will mean a new logo and jerseys in the AHL. No word yet on whether they're keeping the ECHL look, but it's a good one so they probably will.

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Glads dress as Knights on pink iceSpeaking of the Checkers, they're playing the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators this weekend, who are knocking out two promotions at once.

It's Pink in the Rink Weekend, where the ice has gotten a nice cotton candy-colored coating. And they're celebrating minor league hockey history in Georgia's capital by wearing black and powder blue throwback jerseys in honor of the old Atlanta Knights of the IHL.

Gladiators' Knights throwback jerseyAs you can see here, they've kept the logo pretty much the same, changing only the team name, obviously. If you want to see more pictures of this one-time jersey, check out the Gladiators on Facebook.

And for the record, the Knights hold a special place in my heart as they were the original minor league affiliate of my Tampa Bay Lightning. That team saw the likes of ex-Bolts such as Cory Cross, Stan Drulia, Shawn Chambers, Roman Hamrlik, and even Brent Gretzky.

They went to the playoffs all four years they spent in Atlanta and even won the Turner Cup as league champions in their second season of existence. Why that couldn't translate to wins for the big club is beyond me. But they moved to Quebec to become the Rafales in 1996 and folded after two seasons.

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I promise to be less verbose for these last two items.

Rebels specialty jerseyThe WHL's Red Deer Rebels will be wearing specially-designed jerseys on Friday, February 19 for Jerseys Off Our Backs Night.

You can see it modeled here in the photo (right) by the Rebels captain Colin Archer.

The proceeds from the jersey auction will benefit Ronald McDonald House Central Alberta. If you want to watch a brief video about the event, the Red Deer Advocate has you covered.

Fans will be able to bid on jerseys throughout the game. Winners will be led down to center ice to claim their sweaty prize following the game.

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And finally, the OHL's Sudbury Wolves held their Pink in the Rink event this week with great success. They raised over $30,000 for the Janis Foligno Foundation and breast cancer research.

The Wolves' web site claims this is a photo gallery, but I can't seem to make it work. If anyone else has any luck, let me know. In the meantime, there's this.

Devils Vintage Jerseys Revealed!

Devils 1980s jerseysHa! It worked! In my last post, I said don't count on seeing the New Jersey Devils' throwback sweaters until the night they wear them — March 17 — hoping to jinx it.

And it seems to have worked!

The Devils revealed their vintage red and green sweaters tonight on their official web site. They announced the sale of 82 player-worn practice jerseys from the 1980s — sample seen in the photo above.

Now before you go crazy about the iron-on crests, let me point out that these are not the jerseys the Devils will wear in March.

Devils throwback jersey (Glocally Newark)This is! (Sort of.)

Glocally Newark posted pictures tonight. Apparently, the Devils Den team store just received their shipment and they will go on sale tomorrow!

You'll notice this is NOT a Reebok Edge jersey. This is a genuine old school CCM sweater. Now, does that mean the item pictured is a replica or could it actually be an authentic?

Can't say yet. Unfortunately, Glocally Newark doesn't appear to have that information. However, they do have a lot more pictures and I would encourage you to have a look for yourself.

So keep in mind these are two unrelated items I've posted together here: 1) The Devils have announced player-worn practice jerseys from the 1980s are on sale now, and 2) Glocally Newark has pictures from the Devils Den store of the throwback jerseys that will also be on sale.

I'll post more details and information as they become available. Thanks to those of you who emailed in on this tonight!

Update on Friday · Feb 12 · 2010 | 8:31 AM PST by Chris

The Devils have posted a full photo gallery on their web site of the throwback jerseys.

Get Ready for Green!

Devils throwback promoThe New Jersey Devils are offering a little sneak peek at their throwback jersey night on their official web site.

In case you haven't heard, the Devils will be wearing their original red and green jerseys this St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

This ad — featuring a sneak peek at the green-injected sweater — just started showing up on their web site, promoting the "one night only" event when the Devils host the Pittsburgh Penguins. It links you to a page where you can purchase game tickets.

That's all we've got so far. I don't think we'll see the actual jerseys until the players step out onto the ice for that game. In the meantime, we already know what it's going to look like — it'll just be Reebok Edgeified.

Not sure if the jerseys will be available to purchase, but the Devils could use the money. They need to re-sign Ilya Kovalchuk this summer and the man's already turned down $100 million.

Thanks to Tom!

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Related: Devils announce plans to go green!